The engineering of T-cells using microfluidics for cellular therapies

利用癌症患者的免疫系统与疾病作斗争的初步临床试验已显示出令人印象深刻的疗效。从患者身上分离的免疫细胞经过基因改造，可以更好地检测癌细胞，然后重新注入患者体内。然而，尽管这种疗法前景看好，但快速且具有成本效益的制造仍然是广泛采用的障碍。 该项目的目标是开发芯片实验室平台，以快速设计和制造可用于细胞治疗的免疫细胞。具体地说，免疫细胞的制造过程将包括三个步骤--工程、浓缩和分析。整个用于制造的微流控系统结构紧凑，便于携带，因此可以被带到医院、诊所或研究实验室，在那里它将有助于简化设计免疫细胞的过程。 为了实现这一目标，施正荣实验室(康科迪亚)正在与McComb博士(渥太华大学)以及工业合作伙伴DropGenie密切合作。DropGenie是一家总部位于蒙特利尔的公司，正在加速基因工程的前景。他们希望开发一种芯片上实验室的方法，在这种方法中，几个实验室操作已经集成到一个手持设备上，从而允许自动化液体处理和优化免疫细胞基因工程特有的实验条件。简化流程将降低成本并提高癌症患者治疗的可及性，而自动化将提高加拿大用于细胞治疗的工程免疫细胞的标准化和重复性。

Preliminary clinical trials harnessing the immune system of cancer patients to combat disease have shown to have impressive efficacy. Immune cells isolated from a patient are genetically altered to allow for improved detection of cancerous cells and subsequently re-introduced into the patient. Yet despite its promise, rapid and cost effective manufacturing of this therapy remains a barrier to widespread adoption. The goal of this project is to develop lab-on-chip platforms to rapidly engineer and to manufacture immune cells that can be potentially used for cellular therapies. Specifically, the manufacturing process of immune cells will involve three steps - engineering, enrichment, and analysis. The overall microfluidic system for manufacturing is compact and portable and therefore can be brought to hospitals, clinics, or research laboratories where it will help streamline the process of engineering immune cells. To achieve this objective, the Shih lab (Concordia) is closely collaborating with Dr. McComb (University of Ottawa) along with the industrial partner DropGenie. DropGenie is a Montreal-based company accelerating the promise of genetic engineering. They would like to develop a lab-on-a-chip approach in which several laboratory operations have been integrated onto a single handheld device, thus allowing for automated liquid handling and optimization of experimental conditions specific to the genetic engineering of immune cells. Streamlining the process will reduce costs and improve accessibility of the therapy for cancer patients while automation will improve standardization and reproducibility of engineering immune cells for cellular therapies in Canada.